Guest Review by Sara Austin, PhD Because there was so much apocalyptic YA fiction, it is rare to find something truly different, but Nicki Richard’s Demon in the White Lands delivers just that. Samuel, the main character of the novel, is not gifted with magic by birth or circumstance. This […]
What Riley Wore (2019), written by Elana K. Arnold, explores the creativity and sensitivity of a nonbinary/gender creative child as they navigate everyday life from the dentist’s office to the playground. This accessible children’s picture book is colorfully and cartoonishly illustrated by Linda Davick with a touch of whimsy that […]
Barry Wittenstein’s Sonny’s Bridge: Jazz Legend Sonny Rollins Finds His Groove (2019) takes readers on a stroll through New York City that begins at the height of the Harlem Renaissance. The picture book manages to be both intimate and expansive. Although a biography of jazz great Sonny Rollins, his story […]
Are You A Boy or a Girl? (2000) by Karleen Pendleton Jimenez is a Lambda Literary Award 2001 Finalist that was adapted into the film Tomboy in 2008. It is often thought that boyish girls have it easier than girlish boys. In fact, the idea that girls can more easily […]
Like most children’s picture books that feature transgender children, Sophie Labelle’s 2013 publication, A Girl Like Any Other, was self-published with the help of crowdfunding. Readers are introduced to a quirky young girl who shares what it is like being transgender in this first-person-narrative which is sure to reflect many […]
In his recent children’s picture book, Stonewall (2019), author Rob Sanders makes the Stonewall riots of 1969 accessible to a young audience. Sanders creatively tells the story from the point-of-view of the Stonewall Inn itself.
The Harvey Milk Story (2001), written by Kari Krakow and illustrated by David Gardner, is a serviceable biography of one of the first openly gay US politicians. Krakow chronologizes Milk’s life from birth to assassination. Gardner’s realistic images provide Milk with humanizing depth by showing his nuanced emotions throughout his […]
I have reviewed over 100 LGBTQ* children’s picture books on my blog! I am writing a book about LGBTQ* children’s picture books and as I identify, analyze, and evaluate books for my scholarship, I am reviewing the books on my blog. I hope the blog will be a public resource […]
Too Far Away to Touch (1995), thoughtfully written by Lesléa Newman and movingly illustrated by Catherine Stock, follows a young girl as she processes her beloved uncle’s AIDS-related illness. The child, Zoe, loves her uncle, Leonard, who takes her on adventures in New York City when he visits her. On […]
The Boy Toy (1988), written by Phyllis Hacken Johnson and illustrated by Lena Shiffman, is a Lollipop Power Press publication that challenges gender stereotypes on multiple fronts. The protagonist is a boy named Chad who loves a doll named Dan that his grandmother made him. When Chad starts school, he […]
